Industry committee  At a response rate around 60%, it would actually be a wash between the two.

Industry committee  I think you have to imagine the scale of the operation. The census questionnaires began printing in August 2010—I think it was actually August 9. We are printing huge numbers of forms. We've started the assembly of those forms. We've built systems that have to be tested for high volumes and then locked down in order to support the Internet response, and also the—

Industry committee  Well, we now have two completely separate operations. On the census form, it says that it is mandatory. On the national household survey and the accompanying letter, it says that it is voluntary.

Industry committee  We could have maybe at the beginning of this month, but at this point, it is no longer possible. We simply don't have the time to make it happen by—

Industry committee  On the contrary, we can in fact succeed. The national household survey will produce data that will meet many users' needs. On the effect of the declining response rate, there are really two aspects to what you need to take into consideration. One is that if there were no compensating change in the size of the sample, the sampling error would increase, and that would degrade the quality of the data, strictly from an accuracy point of view.

Industry committee  If we were to achieve a 60% response rate, basically we would have the same size of responding samples, on average, across the country, that we would have had from the--

Industry committee  No. I said there were two factors, Mr. Chair. The first factor, as I said, was the impact of a declining response rate. The first consideration is the impact on the accuracy of the data through sampling error. I said we've taken measures to correct that. The second issue is the issue of response bias.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for inviting Statistics Canada to appear before the committee today. There are really three points I'd like to make before the committee. First, whatever is the ultimate will of Parliament with respect to private member's bill C-568, we have reached a point of no return for the 2011 census and national household survey.